They release 12 of the 19 crew members of the controversial Venezuelan plane of Iranian origin held in Argentina: what happens now

The Argentine justice system decided to allow 12 of the 19 people who were part of the crew of a plane belonging to the Venezuelan state company Emtrasur to leave the country. was stranded in Buenos Aires at the beginning of last June.

11 of those released are of Venezuelan origin (among them the only woman in the group) and one is Iranian, as confirmed by the Emtrasur authorities.

The entire crew of the plane, made up of 14 Venezuelans and five Iranians, She has been held in a hotel near the Ezeiza international airport since the aircraft was unable to return to Venezuela on June 8.

The Boeing 747 had arrived in the Argentine capital on June 6 and two days later it was scheduled to go to Montevideo, but Uruguay denied it access to its airspace, so he had to return to the Argentine airport, where he was seized after being stranded due to lack of fuel.

Since then, Argentine justice investigates whether the planethat previously belonged to the Iranian airline Mahan Air, was used to carry out suspicious activities.

USAwhich imposed sanctions on Mahan Air for its alleged links to the Quds Force, a powerful elite paramilitary arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), asked the South American country to retain the aircraft.

In addition to analyzing the flights made by the cargo plane, it is also investigating why five Iranian citizens were traveling on the Emtrasur flight and why the crew was allegedly much older to the required one.

According to the Venezuelan company, the Iranians are flight instructors.

Although the crew members’ passports were withdrawn and their cell phones and computers were analyzed, so far no one has been arrested or charged.

On August 1, the judge in charge of the case, Federico Villena, had decided to lift the ban on leaving the country for 12 of the 19 occupants of the plane, but the measure was appealed by the prosecutor.

Now the Federal Court of Appeals ratified the release.

The court also endorsed the decision of the magistrate of hold the aircraft, at the request of Washington.

Two months after the arrest of the aircraft, the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, made strong statements against Argentinaaccusing the country of appropriating a good of their country.

“I am very indignant about the theft of the plane in Argentina“, he said during a speech broadcast on state television.

“Now they want to seize a plane from us in Argentina due to a decision by a court in Florida. That is, from now on a court in Florida or New York decides to seize a ship, a plane or any property from Venezuela or any other country.” and he can do it,” the president said.

“Is there no sovereign rule? Is there no respect for sovereignty? Is there no respect for international law Or is it that in Argentina the courts of the United States rule?“, I ask.

The Boeing 747 at the center of the controversy was added to the Emtrasur fleet last January, but before it operated for Mahan Air for 15 years.

According to Emtrasur, the cargo plane arrived in Argentina last June to transport auto parts from Mexicoa country where he had arrived after transporting a shipment of cigarettes from Paraguay to Aruba in May.

The Argentine company that received the auto parts, SAS Automotriz SA, said it ordered the delivery of these components to Fracht, an international logistics services company based in Switzerland, and that it had no relationship with Emtrasur.

For his part, Fracht also denied having contracted the Venezuelan cargo airline, pointing out that he had commissioned the shipment to the company Aerocharter México, which was the one that subcontracted Emtrasur.

In addition to confirming the release of the 12 crew members, the Federal Court of Appeals requested that define “within ten days” the situation of the other seven men who remain in Buenos Aires -four Iranians and three Venezuelans-.

In its ruling, the court asked Judge Villena to speed up “all pending proceedings, the definition of the procedural situation and the restrictions imposed on people and things.”

“Neither the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela nor the Islamic Republic of Iran are part of the investigation,” the court clarified.

Among the crew members who must continue for the fourth month in the Argentine capital is Iranian pilot Gholamreza Ghasemi Abbasto whom the Minister of Intelligence of Paraguay accused of being a member of the Quds Force.

Ghasemi Abbas is suspected of being a member of the board of directors and CEO of the airline Qeshm Fars Air, used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards for move weapons and military equipment to Syria during the civil war in that country.

The Argentine opposition deputy Gerardo Milman, who denounced before the justice “the presumably anomalous behaviors” that the Emtrasur flight carried out, pointed out that they could be part of “a operation of Venezuelan intelligence and Iranian intelligence in Argentine territory“.

Iran is accused by Argentina of having been behind the worst attack in the history of that country: the blowing up of the headquarters of the Israelite Mutual Association Argentina (AMIA) in 1994, which left 85 dead.

Judicial sources quoted anonymously by the newspaper Clarín maintained that the ten-day period that the Court of Appeals gave Judge Villena to decide whether to file charges could “force him to close the case, with a hypothetical dismissal of the defendants” since it wouldn’t be enough time to receive the response to requests for judicial cooperation sent to the US, Paraguay, Uruguay and other countries.

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